This feature is being gradually rolled out and will be available for all accounts soon.

Flexible timesheet approval allows Administrators and Managers to review, approve, and lock your team’s submitted time and expense entries for any timeframe. 

Enabling and disabling timesheet approval

Timesheet approval is an optional module in your account that is activated by default for plans that have support for timesheet approval. Administrators can enable or disable timesheet approval by taking the following steps:

1. Click on Settings (upper right corner).
2. Click into the Modules tab and click Choose modules.
3. Check or uncheck the box for Timesheet approval.
4. Save modules.

Keep in mind that removing the timesheet approval module will not unlock timesheets that have been approved and locked—if you want to edit any timesheets, you’ll need to manually unlock them while timesheet approval is still enabled.

Submitting time and expenses

Before timesheets can be approved, they must be submitted. Timesheets can be submitted weekly, or for custom time intervals. Learn more about weekly timesheet submission.

Editing submitted timesheets

After submission, timesheets can still be edited until they’re approved. Approvers will always see the most up-to-date entries. 

For full details about editing entries, see Editing time entries and Editing expenses.

Editing approved timesheets

If you need to edit an approved timesheet, an Administrator or Manager with special permission will need to withdraw approval from the timesheet. 

Approving and locking timesheets with flexible approval

Timesheets must be submitted in order to be approved. This means that only days included on a submitted timesheet will be locked after approval, no matter which timeframe you approve for. 

Who can approve timesheets?

Administrators can approve all timesheets, while Managers can approve time and expenses tracked by their assigned people and for projects they manage. Each timesheet only requires approval from one Administrator or Manager to be confirmed as approved.

As default, Project Managers are unable to approve their own time and expenses. To enable them to approve their timesheets, enable the Manager self-approval setting within Preferences.

Approving submitted timesheets

To approve timesheets once they’ve been submitted:

1. Head to Time > Approval.
2. Make sure Pending Approval is selected in the Status filter.
3. Filter for any specific Client, Project, Role, or Teammate you’d like to approve for. 

From here you can:

• Click Approve all timesheets and expenses if you’re ready to approve all submitted timesheets on the page at once.
• Or, to approve a specific timesheet, click Approve in the row for the teammate you’d like to approve for. 

Remind a teammate to submit their timesheet

When a teammate forgets to submit their timesheet on time, there are several courses of action you can take.

• You can send them an email reminder to submit their timesheet via Status: Unsubmitted > Send reminder.
• Alternatively, you can simply submit the timesheet on behalf of your teammate through Status: Unsubmitted > Force submit. If you want to view the teammate's timesheet before doing so, you can click on the blue, hyperlinked name of the teammate which will take you to their timesheet. There you can view their tracked time and submit for them as well.  

Request changes to a submitted timesheet

Timesheets cannot be rejected. However, if a timesheet needs to be changed before being approved, you have two choices:

• You can send a message to the timesheet owner asking them to edit and resubmit. To do that, click the Send email button in the row for the person you’d like to contact.
• Administrators and Managers with permission to edit time and expenses can make changes themselves. Click on the blue hyperlinked name of the teammate you’d like to make a change for. This will take you to your teammate's timesheet, where you’ll be able to make any necessary edits. Once done, you can then resubmit the timesheet on behalf of your teammate.

Sort and filter timesheets for approval

In Time > Approval, you can use the filters to group by timeframe, status, client, project, role, or teammate.

Available filters are:

• Timeframe: Use the timeframe filter to view and approve timesheets for a selected time period.
• Status:
  • Unsubmitted shows all timesheets for the selected timeframe that have not yet been submitted.
  • Pending Approval shows all timesheets for the selected timeframe that have been submitted.
  • Approved shows all timesheets that have been approved for the selected timeframe.
• Client:  Use the client filter to view timesheets for selected clients.
• Project:  Use the project filter to view timesheets for selected projects. Choose My pinned projects to show only time and expenses tracked to projects you’ve pinned in the main Projects page.
• Role:  Use the role filter to show timesheets of people assigned to that role.
• Teammate:  Use the teammates filter to show only timesheets for selected people.
  • Choose My pinned teammates to show only time and expenses tracked by people you’ve pinned on the Team page.

Filters only include teammates, projects, clients and roles relevant to you. This means that if you are a manager, you will exclusively be able to filter on what has been assigned to you. 

Approvals filters are functional, and not purely for easier navigation. If you filter on a specific project, for example, and then approve all time, you will have only approved and locked all time attributed to that project.

How does flexible approval lock timesheets?

• Locking only applies to days that are part of a submitted timesheet. If a date hasn't been submitted, it won't be locked, even if it falls within the selected approval period.
• Approval is tied to:
  • The users who submitted timesheets during the approval period.
  • Projects included on the timesheet(s) or in the filters.
  • The permissions of the approver.
• How permissions and filters affect locking:
  • Managers can only approve time for projects they manage and for their assigned people. If the approver is a Manager who only manages some of the projects or people with submitted timesheets, then only the projects they manage or timesheets for their assigned people will be approved and locked.
  • When no filters are applied, OR if the filters capture all projects on a submitted timesheet, the entire timesheet will be locked for the approved days when it's approved by an Administrator, or by a Manager who's assigned to manage all submitted projects and/or people.
  • Projects included in the filters will be locked for the approved days, even if no time has been tracked to them. 

Unlock approved timesheets

Administrators and Managers with special permission to withdraw approval can unlock approved timesheets by taking these steps:

1. Head to Time > Approval.
2. In the Status filter, select Approved.
3. Set the timeframe and filters to capture the timesheet you want to unlock.
4. Click the green Withdraw approval button to withdraw approval from all timesheets on the page or click the Withdraw button next to the person’s timesheet you’d like to withdraw approval from. 

Approval can also be withdrawn from both the Day and Week view, but note that withdrawing from either of those areas will unlock the entire week. It's recommended to withdraw approval from Time > Approval to ensure you unlock only the timeframe you intend to. 

Timesheets can be locked for more than one reason. For more information on unlocking time and expense entries, check out our article on how to unlock a timesheet.

View unsubmitted timesheets

Administrators and Managers with assigned people can check on any outstanding timesheets by heading over to Time > Approval and using the Status filter to select Unsubmitted. 

For greater visibility on these timesheets, click on the blue, hyperlinked name of any teammate to be sent to their timesheet, where you can edit and submit for approval on their behalf.

Manage timesheet reminders and notifications

Manage timesheet reminders

If you’d like to remind your teammates to fill out and submit their timesheets for approval, you have a few options:

• Administrators can set up recurring timesheet reminders to send automatically to everyone in your account each week.
• Administrators and Managers can manually send one-time timesheet reminders to specific people.
• Individuals can set up daily reminders for themselves to remember to track time. 

You can learn how to set up these notifications in our article on timesheet reminders.

Manage timesheet submission emails

Administrators and Managers can opt in to notifications when timesheets are submitted for projects they manage or by their assigned people. To enable timesheet submission emails:

1. Click your name in the upper right corner and select Notifications.
2. Select or deselect Email me if timesheets are submitted for projects or people I manage next to Approval.
3. Update notifications.